... Oceanic malaise. I never saw anyone reading anything more demanding than a comic book. I never heard any youth express an interest in science or art. No one even talked politics. It was all idleness, and whenever I asked someone a question, no matter how simple, no matter how well the person spoke English, there was always a long pause before I got a reply, and I found these Pacific pauses maddening. And there was giggling but no humor - no wit. It was just foolery.

The people of Hong Kong are criticized for only being interested in business, but it's the only thing they've been allowed to do.

Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine.

A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. It's not about inventing.

I think that love isn't what you think it is when you're in your twenties or even thirties.

My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it.

Everyone had an opinion and no one had a solution.